Can peace last?

What new thing has happened in Northern Ireland? The peace agreement reached on Good Friday 1998 has begun to be implemented. A power-sharing Assembly has been established in which, for the first time, representatives of all political persuasions have agreed to participate. The two main governments did their parts. Britain passed legislation, duly signed by the queen, transfering power from the parliament in Westminster (where it had resided since the crisis of 1971-72) to the Assembly in Stormont, outside Belfast. The government of Ireland passed legislation amending its constitution to renounce its traditional territorial claim to Northern Ireland.

Author

Ronald A. Wells, professor emeritus of history at Calvin College, directs the Symposium on Faith and the Liberal Arts at Maryville College in Tennessee. He is a member at the Church of the Ascension (Episcopal) in Knoxville, Tennesse. His most recent book is Hope and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland.